


Day 6- Parents

by TheEruditeGrammacist



Series: Erudite's Bumbleby Week 2017 [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Absent Parents, Alcohol, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Drunken Shenanigans, F/F, Meeting the Parents, Parents Meeting Parents, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 12:03:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12298869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEruditeGrammacist/pseuds/TheEruditeGrammacist
Summary: Having parents that live an entire hemisphere away from each other tends to lead to the wedding being the first time they meet. Yang prepares for the imminent disaster.





	Day 6- Parents

**Author's Note:**

> I have had no WiFi all day. I am posting this at 10:00 at night, but damn it, it is still Day 6! I am committed!

“It’s official,” Yang said, bursting into their apartment and tossing her coat aside. “We’re eloping. Cancel everything.”

Blake looked up from their living room couch, where she was sitting, talking with Weiss.

“You two are _not_ canceling all the hard work I have put into this wedding,” Weiss said, glaring. “What is the issue?”

“One, Weiss, you’re an anal wedding planner, and I maintain that you are driving me crazy,” Yang said, shooting Weiss a glare. “But that’s not the problem. The _problem_ is that both of our parents have RSVP’d for the wedding _and_ reception _and_ rehearsal dinner.” She collapsed melodramatically onto the couch beside Blake.

Blake and Weiss exchanged a look. “Isn’t that… a good thing?” Blake asked after a few seconds.

“No! It’s bad!” Yang said. “Both my dad and Uncle Qrow are going to be in the same physical location as your parents and a whole lot of alcohol. We are going to die.” She closed her eyes and put her hands on her forehead.

Blake rolled her eyes. “Yang, you’ll be fine. My parents love you… in, uh, in spite of everything.”

“Oh, god, don’t remind me. I do not need to relive _that_ experience,” Yang said, shuddering as she recalled the disastrous way she’d met Blake’s parents. “But that’s not the point. My point is that we’re inviting the chieftain of Menagerie and his wife to the same location as a guy with no social skills and an alcoholic harbinger of misfortune, and forcing them to interact.”

“Oh, stop being so dramatic, Yang,” Weiss said. “They’ll only have to interact two nights. How bad can it be?”

 

-

 

“Remember a couple weeks ago, when you asked me how bad it could be to have my family meet Blake’s?” Yang shot across the table at Weiss, her fingers pressed against her forehead. Without waiting for a response, she said, “This. This is how bad it could be.”

The night had started off well enough. She and Blake had introduced her parents to Qrow and Taiyang relatively uneventfully. Taiyang, uncharacteristically, had made no silly jokes or comments. She did see Ghira and Kali’s faces clench slightly, likely a result of their heightened Faunus senses picking up on the smell of alcohol Qrow carried (she’d grown used to seeing a similar reaction from Blake when she was around Qrow, and didn’t begrudge her fiancee’s parents for it). Besides, she’d told them about her uncle before, so it wasn’t as though it was unexpected.

The evening had, however, gone downhill from there. Weiss’s very detailed plan involved a half hour of socializing before dinner, and roughly ten minutes into those thirty, Taiyang had managed to get completely drunk. Qrow claimed no responsibility, but Yang had her doubts. The last thing she needed was her future in-laws thinking that _both_ of her parental figures were alcoholics.

Yang thanked every god she could think of that Weiss had had the foresight to invite only close friends and immediate family to the rehearsal dinner, as Drunk Tai was even more unpredictable than his sober counterpart. He had so far gotten cut off from the bar, treated Weiss to an apparently mentally scarring conversation that the heiress refused to speak about, and handed a very confused Jaune a bag of kettle corn that he’d procured from god-knows-where and told him that regrettably, Jaune was too drunk and had to leave (which he did, and it had taken five minutes past the time Weiss scheduled dinner to track the poor boy down and bring him back).

The highlight of the evening, however, was during the dinner, when Tai called for a toast. It was then that Yang reminded Weiss of their earlier conversation.

“I take it back, okay?” Weiss demanded in a whisper. She was still eyeing Tai oddly from earlier. “You win. Your dad is a menace.”

“I don’t know why he’s being so… off,” Yang said. “He’s normally just an over-sharing goofball in situations like this. Qrow’s usually the one I have to be worried about for alcohol.”

“Well he’s definitely been over-sharing,” Weiss said with a shudder.

Their conversation was interrupted by Tai laughing loudly, but alone, apparently having made a joke only funny to his own drunken self.

“But seriously, though,” Tai slurred, “I just want you both to know that I really think that you and your fian… fi… uh, person you’re gonna marry,” Tai coughed, “Will be happy. Probably. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen, she’ll run out and abandon you?” Yang’s eyes snapped to her father. He wasn’t going to… Even drunk, he wouldn’t go _there,_ would he?

Yet he did. “I mean, not like something like that’s gonna happen _again_ now, is it?” he laughed. He was the only one, but he didn’t notice. Blake looked horrified, and the rest of Taiyang’s audience was stunned.

Yang’s hand was back to the bridge of her forehead, metal fingers pinching harder than she intended, but the headache her father was causing was worse. She closed her eyes, which were threatening to flicker to red. She would not punch her father. She would not punch her father. She would…

“To these two, and hopefully no tragic ending this time!” Tai said, but his words were punctuated by a loud crash. Yang’s head snapped up.

Tai had apparently started backing up while speaking, having forgotten that there was, in fact, a chair behind him. “Dad!” she yelled, seeing her father splayed out on the floor. She started to get up, but Qrow beat her to it. He slung one of Tai’s arms around his shoulders.

“I’ll, ah, get him somewhere dark. And quiet,” Qrow said. “And, you know, _alone._ ”

With that, he left, leaving the room in shocked silence.

 

-

 

“Hey.”

The raspy voice and permeating smell of alcohol gave away who was behind her. Blake turned to see Yang’s Uncle Qrow standing behind her. “You seen Yang around?”

“No,” Blake answered truthfully. After Taiyang’s disastrous speech, the conversation had become strained and awkward for the rest of the night. Yang had taken off after Blake’s parents almost as soon as the dinner ended, whether to apologize for her father’s behavior or some other reason, Blake was unsure.

“Ah, damn,” Qrow said. “I got Tai up and conscious again and I figured she’d want to talk to him.”

Blake shrugged. “She’d probably want to punch him more than anything.”

“Yeah…” Qrow agreed. “Well, even still, they do need to talk. If you see her, tell her he’s in room 21-B.”

“I will,” Blake said. As Qrow left, Blake considered what he’d said. It was unlikely that Yang would be calm enough yet to talk to her dad. It would probably be best if she went to spoke with him, instead. After all, while his speech had been uncalled for, he also hadn’t been _wrong._ If he had any lingering doubts about her, it may be best to quell them now, _before_ marrying his daughter. Her mind made up, she set out to find him.

It wasn’t hard. Qrow _had_ told her where he was, and the residual smell of alcohol led her straight to him. He was sitting on the floor, an ice pack pressed to his forehead.

“Hey,” she greeted apprehensively.

“Mhm,” he responded, his slurred mumble telling her he was still at least slightly inebriated.

“Are you, um, sober enough to talk?” Blake asked. She didn’t have much experience dealing with drunk people; Yang didn’t overindulge often, and on the occasion she did, she burned through it quickly. Taiyang, however, merely grunted in affirmation and patted the floor next to him. Blake took that as an invitation and sat.

“Do you, uh,” Blake began. She cleared her throat and started again. “Do you really think I’m going to leave Yang again?”

Taiyang merely shrugged.

“Because I won’t,” Blake insisted. “I wouldn’t do that. I promised Yang forever, and I meant it.”

Taiyang merely shrugged again. At this point, Blake was beginning to grow a little bit frustrated with his lack of response. She was about to give up talking at all when Taiyang said, “Heard it all before.”

“I’m sorry?” Blake asked.

“Forever,” Taiyang clarified. “Won’t leave. A guy gets skeptical the third time around, even if it’s someone else saying it.”

“What are you… oh.” Blake’s eyes widened as the realization struck her.

“You weren’t talking about me and Yang, were you?” she said slowly. “You were talking about you and Raven.”

“And Summer,” Taiyang groaned, “But yes. It’s been… god, 27 years, and still can’t get past it.”

Looking down at Taiyang, Blake didn’t see the drunk mess she had walked into the room expecting to talk to. She saw a broken man, shattered by having been abandoned by his love not once, but twice. And now he was sending his daughter into the exact same vulnerability that had left him so broken, with someone who had already left once before.

“I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to convince you that I won’t leave again,” Blake said, “But I promise that I won’t. If you won’t believe me for me, do it for Yang.”

“Yang…” Taiyang murmured. He put his face in his hands. “Oh, god, I _really_ messed everything up, didn’t I?”

“You may have, yes,” Blake said. “You owe her an apology. And my parents, too.”

“I… yeah. I’ll do that,” Taiyang said, trying to get up. He clutched his head and fell back against the wall. “Ohh, no, can’t do that.”

“Are you okay?” Blake asked. “Look, just, stay here. I’ll go get Yang and bring her here.”

“That won’t really be necessary,” Yang’s voice sounded from the doorway. Blake turned to greet her, and was surprised to see that she was not alone. Ghira and Kali stood with her.

“How long have you all been standing there?” Blake asked.

“Pretty much the entire time,” Ghira said. He turned to Taiyang. “Your apology is accepted, Mr. Xiao Long. We understand that this experience has been… difficult. For you.”

“Maybe we can get to know each other a bit more later, under… better circumstances?” Kali suggested. Taiyang nodded.

“I’d like that. Thank you,” he said.

Blake met Yang’s eyes, and the blonde nodded slightly behind herself. Taking that as her cue to leave, she walked to the door and threaded her arm through Yang’s. As they left the room, she saw Qrow lurking in the hallway. She turned to him.

“You knew where Yang was, didn’t you?” she asked. “You just wanted me to talk to Taiyang first.”

“I will neither confirm nor deny that statement,” Qrow shrugged, more than answering the question. “But I will say this. Tai may not have shown it tonight, but he does want you two to be happy, and he thinks you will be. This isn’t the first drunken rant he’s had on this subject. His insecurities just have a way of…” he waved his hand absently, “Getting in the way of his better judgment.”

Blake blushed slightly, but nodded. “Thank you, Qrow,” she said.

“Hey, no problem,” he shrugged again. “Now, I’ll, ah, give you two some privacy. It’s the last night before your wedding, it’s pretty obvious how you’re going to be spending it.”

Yang’s face flushed. “Ugh! Qrow! Get out of here!” she said, shooing him off with her hand. Laughing, Qrow set off down the hall.

And if he noticed a familiar black raven with blood red eyes taking off from a nearby windowsill, well, he didn’t say anything. Some parents had made a choice about their kids long ago. There got to be a point where no amount of subtle prodding from an uncle, or brother, could fix things.

Yang deserved to be happy with the family who’d raised her, and the new family she’d fallen in love with. If any ghosts wanted to reappear, they’d have to do so on their own.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a silly crack fic what the hell happened why do I do these things.
> 
> Honestly, I had Tai saying way more during his speech that I edited out for being too over-the-line for a Bumbleby Week prompt. Things I may include in a later work.


End file.
